Who's stealing your iPhone 4S battery life? Chief suspect revealed!

Poor battery life on your iPhone 4S? There's an app for that. Actually, no there isn't (we just wanted to say it) - but there is a suspect behind the woes shiny new iOwners have been facing.

We reported yesterday how Apple's engineers have been contacting disgruntled iPhone 4s owners and installing diagnostics files on their devices with some users experiencing 10% drain in an hour on standby. But as we wait for the official line to come out, the Guardian appears to have found a cause.

It's putting the blame at the feet of location services and pinpoints a particular part - the "Setting Time Zone", which works out where you are and alters your clock accordingly - as being rather over-eager.

An icon beside the setting, which shows if it has been employed within the last 24 hours, appears to divulge that it's on constantly even when there is no need for it to be.

The article points to post by Oliver Haslam who suggests on iDownloadBlog: "it appears that iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably.

"Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that's a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge… We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching 'Setting Time Zone' off."

If this is the cause, it may come as little surprise to many. When Apple unveiled iOS5 back in the summer, the snazzy location services were one of the key selling points. The ability to set reminders which would ping when you stepped into a certain zone, for example, was one of the highlights.

But commentators instantly queried just what this would mean for battery life. When the first BETA arrived, power was guzzled like champagne at a wedding and we, like many, experienced first hand ridiculous battery life. Many a time, the phrase was uttered: "I hope they sort this out for the official launch."

Of course, there is every chance that this battery drain could be to do with something far more ingrained in the OS itself that needs fixing with an update. Apple has remained - predictably - very quiet on this issue as it presumably fears another "antennagate."

But whatever the cause, there is that much of a stink being kicked up online, that it's bound to be addressed as a grade one priority. In the meantime, you can always disable the setting to see yourself. Especially if you very rarely travel too far from home.

The iPhone 4S is incredibly popular, and seems to just be growing in reputation. The iPhone 4S, however, seems to be a bit buggy. The best idea thus far is that the iPhone 4S coding bugs are depleting much more power supply than they should be. Here is the proof: Apps on iPhone 4S could be worsening battery drain